Curating artists of the future: the A-level Summer Exhibition Online

Curating artists of the future: the A-level Summer Exhibition Online

By Ann Gilmore

Published 18 June 2015

Each year the RA’s Learning team puts together an online exhibition of outstanding work by A-level students. Ann Gilmore explains how this year’s show came together.

The A-level Summer Exhibition Online, now in its ninth year, continues to receive record numbers of submissions from young and emerging artists aged 16 to 18 and still in education. It offers a unique opportunity for these young people to submit images of what they consider to be their best artwork, which is then judged and curated by an expert panel.

Every year, we wait for the torrent of online submissions, which (inevitably perhaps) always arrive within 72 hours of the deadline at the end of April. This year we received submissions ranging in medium from painting, sculpture, installation, photography and printmaking to digital projects, video and animation. Each artist is asked to describe their work, offering an insight into their inspirations, influences and ideas.

The selection process is two-stage. First, three final-year post-graduate RA Schools students create a shortlist of the work for a second panel of curators, who then finalise the exhibition. This panel represents the main elements of the Royal Academy: the Royal Academicians, RA Exhibitions and the RA Schools. The selected works are then curated into virtual galleries or ‘zones’, and a title is chosen for the exhibition.

We received over 2,000 submissions from state and independent schools and sixth form colleges from across the entire UK. The formidable task of shortlisting fell this year to RA Schools students Josie Cockram, Caroline Abbotts and Declan Jenkins. They were particularly interested in artwork that they felt was investigating current political and social issues, and trying to understand the language of contemporary art. Josie commented that the submissions showed “a real range of work and in some cases, a professional polish”.

The final selection was curated by Lisa Milroy RA, Andrea Tarsia (Head of RA Exhibitions) and RA Schools student Maria de Lima. “We felt we were looking at really great art”, Lisa Milroy said. Every image triggered discussion about technique, concept, impact, gesture, the direction of A-level art and the importance of developing an awareness of artistic approach to produce an image.

I’m continuously surprised, encouraged and delighted by the submissions; it’s great to see trends appear that are not tied to the UK art curriculum. This year we saw a growing exploration of sexuality and gender, whereas in previous years the issue of body image seemed to prevail. Multi-generational family and friendship themes continue to permeate the submissions. A sense of humour still exists in much of the art and this delighted the curators. Digital technology continues to feature prominently, but we also saw a renewed interest in using oil as a medium and more sculpture and installation work being entered.

Selby Hurst Inglefield,Deep in Secret Fear.

Varndean College
This piece is influenced by feelings and emotion. I connect feelings and emotion strongly with colour. I inserted the colours, which I connect with different emotions into certain sections of the piece. I like that no one knows what feelings the colours represent, but me. I like to create my experimental photography by hand as I like how you can see the mistakes I made; I feel this makes the piece more relatable. I took inspiration from Damien Blottiere’s photography; I like the process and logic he uses to create his work.

Photography, hand cutting and pasting, and photoshop. 16 x 11 cm.

Leterece Carter,Prints of Africa.

Norbury Manor Business and Enterprise College for Girls
This self-portrait collage and screen print was inspired by Faith Ringgold’s 1967 ‘Soul Sister’ piece from her Black Light series. Ringgold was influenced by African art and mask life works, which formed my idea of collaging African prints to reflect the beauty and tonal ranges of black skin.

Collage and screen print. 45 x 60.5 cm.

Simone Prasad,Jackie Kennedy.

The American School in London
This is part of a collection of pieces commenting on the representation of powerful women in the media, and how their appearance and femaleness is scrutinised more than their actual opinions, ideas and talents.

Oil on canvas. 66 x 58 cm.

This year, the curators decided not to exhibit a shortlist, but rather celebrate the final 38 artworks that were chosen for the 2015 exhibition, Beings of the World, Unite! The curators chose the title from one of the artworks, as it immediately popped out as a very grand (but highly unlikely) call to action. It was bold and unflinching. Coming up with titles for the galleries wasn’t of interest to the curators - they wanted the works to speak for themselves. Instead, they grouped the works into numbered ‘zones’.

“We would like to say a huge thank you to the hundreds of students who submitted work to the exhibition this year,” said Lisa. Andrea added, “To put your work up for scrutiny is always a daunting moment, but we wanted to encourage everyone who took the plunge to keep working.”

The work was a vital expression of imagination, skill and talent

Lisa Milroy RA

A big thank you also to the many art teachers who promoted the project to their students. We hope that the A-level Summer Exhibition Online continues to be, as Maria puts it, “a platform that spurs artistic discussion and experimentation in and outside of classrooms”. As Andrea said, “On the evidence submitted here, exploration is alive and kicking in the minds of students and their teachers. Keep it up!”